The purpose of this page is to document all of the known tricks of the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game so far.

Because of the nature of this site, we concentrate here on tricks that are nearly difficult to play in real play, but are useful in the making of tool-assisted speedruns. For most of the tricks, a frame advance feature in an emulator is a definite must-have.

This only works ceilings with an opening (or ladder) adjacent to a 2 block long ceiling. Also the turtle must be able to jump to the top of this opening. If the turtle attacks at the correct frame he will get stuck in the ceiling which will immediately scroll the screen down. This can be used for radical shortcuts.

TODO: Link to big time saver in Technodrome.

Pressing U+D and pressing L or R and then attacking glitches the game. The characters sprite changes and then they have a "weapon" floating around on the screen. For Donatello this comes in the form of Leo's sword that floats at the top of the screen ahead of him (in whichever direction he is facing). This weapon has a lot of advantages with killing enemies quickly.

USing the "Floating Weapon Glitch" with Raphael allows him to make contact with items just above his head. This is used to grab items from under the floor.

TODO: Clip of this.

When falling (or swimming from a ledge) the turtle can push against against the wall at the right time and get a few pixels into it. This positions the turtle a bit closer to its destination in the next area.

It is possible to land onto high ledges if the they are only 1 block thick. It requires jumping and positioning the turtle a few pixels inside the wall and holding the to the direction of the ledge. If done correctly, the turtle will land on the ledge. Note: This trick can be done in real time.

This can also be done in a similar fashion with a short jump (where the turtle does not get into spinning motion). This can be used to avoid doing a full jump and having to wait for the turtle to land.

Normally the Level 4 Boss (Mouser) will periodically close its mouth making it invulnerable to damage for a period of time. If you pause and unpause the game just before it closes, it will remain vulnerable.

TODO: Clip

This can only be done with Michaelangelo. It is also not currently useful as a time-saver. It is possible to throw a shuriken at a ledge and have it get stuck next to the ledge. TODO: Upload a clip of this.

Taking damage can allow a turtle to make it across a pit that is normally can't be jumped across.

TODO: Link to Level 4 Rope section.

If a turtles health is under 50% then they do more damage against enemies. TODO: the exact numbers.

TODO: Need address to kills counter. Explain how it works in relation to weapon drops.

Explain how the RNG works with determining enemy types.